Thank you for your continued sharing of knowledge & experience and support!
My 20 week Hep C Qualative is Negative!
Being tested now for Lupus and another autoimmune disease as rash & edema persist....
I just know you are going to beat this thing! I am sending you my strongest good thoughts!
Congratulations on your SVR! I was only able to finish 19 weeks of triple tx. I have been undetected since week 4. Am currently at week 21. I had ribi decreased to 400mg/d and peg to 90mcg per week. I was on prednisone since week 13 and am still on it, weening off slowly. I was thankful to finish the incivek but had to beg to stay on tx from about week 8 to 19. At 19 when I started swelling up, my lymph stystem stopped working, my gastroenteroligist felt I was going into a systemic shut down. I worked closeley with a derm and hepatologist, had several procrit. Spent almost 3 months in bed after week 3 with severe symptoms. Now in 2nd week of no tx and my scalp is bumpy again, painful, swollen and my hair is 80% gone still falling out by the handfuls. Lucky I have a lot of it, LOL! I had 20 week hcv level drawn last week will know hopefully by Friday if I am still undetected. So glad you made it to 24 weeks of tx!
I do want to add that...ly treating doctor reduced my RIBA to 400mg/day after my blood transfusion at week 8 until the end of treatment. He also reduced interferon to 135 during the worst of the rash.Three weeks after stopping Incivek, the rash continued to progress until my dermatologist put me on a two week diminishing regimen of prednisone. I finished 24 weeks of treatment.
I am SVR.
Oh my gosh! I so feel your pain!
Your rash looks just as bad as mine did! From the red sunburn stuff to the swelling and the peeling and cracking!
Are you still dealing with this? I need to go find some of your posts. I finished treatment at the end of June 2012. I had the rash from week seven through week twenty two...I stopped Incivek a week early because of it.
It is definitely not fun being in the one to two percent of patients who get it this bad. My doctor finally admitted, after the fact, that I had DRESS. It was my dermatologist, too, who helped me pull through.
I was looking at your photos and they are impressive. You truly had a very severe rash. I hope you improve soon.
Thanks for posting those links. Actually, after I fired my incompetent team, I got a Hepa from Minnesota Gastro in St. Paul, MN. He is experienced and knowledgeable. MN Gastro does have a vast amount of educational information on their website. Here is a link to their Hep C information.
http://gitract.mngastro.com/mngi.nsf/patient_education/MNGI-838TEZ.html
I did follow your link and then went to the Hep C section in order to zero in on the link to that page. They have a tremendous amount of info listed to the left of the main article with links to their info on liver related and Hep C related articles. Below are all of the categories a person can link to and read about.
Liver
Alpha 1 Antitrypsin Deficiency
Autoimmune Hepatitis
Cirrhosis
Esophageal Varices
Financial Assistance Options for Hepatitis C
Hepatic Encephalopathy
Hepatic Encephalopathy and Lactulose
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B Card
Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C - Initial Visit Folder
Hepatitis C - Teaching Visit Folder - Dual Therapy
Hepatitis C - Teaching Visit Folder - Triple Therapy
Hereditary Hemochromatosis
Insulin Resistance Folder
Liver Biopsy Results Worksheet
Liver Clinic Cover Letter
NAFLD Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
Paracentesis: Self Care of Ascites Leak
Pegylated Interferon & Ribavirin: Managing Side Effects
Percutaneous Liver Biopsy
Post Ultrasound Instruction Sheet
Primary Biliary Cirrhosis
Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis
Sodium Controlled Diet
TIPS Protocol
Ultrasound Instructions
Vaccines and Immunosupression Card
Wilson's Disease